Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Random Stuff You May Not Know: Eight

1- Hit by a Meteorite?

One of history’s rare confirmed meteorite victim, Ann Hodges, was simply napping on the couch on a clear November 1954 afternoon in Sylacauga, Alabama when a
fragment of a fast-moving softball-size hunk of black rock broke through the ceiling,
bounced off a radio, and hit her in the thigh, leaving a
pineapple-shaped bruise. The odds of this happening seems to be so unreal that Michael
Reynolds, a Florida State College astronomer commented: “Think of how many
people have lived throughout human history... you have a better chance of
getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at
the same time.”

Even though she survived the hit, Ann later suffered a nervous breakdown, and
in 1964 she and her husband, Eugene, separated. At 52 years of age she eventually died in 1972 of kidney
failure at a Sylacaugan nursing home. Eugene
believes that the media frenzy which followed the incident ultimately led
to his wife’s nervous breakdown.

Was it some kind of hyperdimentional curse?

EDIT (Feb, 2017):

After re-sharing this article recently, a cousin sent me a Harvard.edu link titled Some interesting meteorite falls of the last two centuries. The list dates back to 1807 until 2013 and according to it, our Alabama woman is not “History’s only confirmed
meteorite victim” as she is widely described — though she is the only American human victim; other meteorites have fallen in the U.S throughout the years and hit one horse plus multiple houses, cars, even a mailbox.

Apparently, the first recorded incident of a meteorite victim was from 1825 India (considered possible). The following is from 1827 also in India when a man was wounded. 1874 in China a child was killed. In 1879, a French farmer killed. A family was killed
in 1907 China. Also in
China in 1915 a woman’s arm was torn off when hit by a meteorite. A young girl’s head was injured in 1927 Japan. In 1929, a man died while
his new wife was injured in Yugoslavia. Plus a dog in Egypt in 1911 and some
more animals. I wonder then why is Ann Hodges thought to be the only one in the entire world.

2- Psychological “Sex Rivals” May Help

Women
who hang out with more male friends and co-workers have more frequent
sex with their partners than women who have fewer male influences in
their life.

The study from Oakland University — published in
the Journal of Comparative Psychology — found that men often perceive
their female partner’s abundance of male friends to be a form of “sperm
competition psychology,” in which the men have more sex with their
girlfriends due to the potential of “sex rivals”. However, the
researchers revealed that this is only the case among men who initially
perceive their partner to be particularly attractive compared to other
men who partook in the same study. Ta-Da.

3-Callipygian

Callipygian (adj): An English word for having a shapely rear end; a beautiful butt.

Callipygian, or Callipygean, comes from Greek Kallipūgos, from the
combination of Kallos ‘Beauty’ + Pūgē ‘Buttocks’. The word was famously
used to name a naked statue of the Greek Goddess of Love, Venus ― also
known as “Aphrodite Kallipygos” and the “Callipygian Venus”. The naming
literally means “Venus (or Aphrodite) of the beautiful buttocks”.

Synonyms are: Bootylicious, bumtastic, and rumpalicious. ‘Callipygous’ is another variant of the word.

You’re most welcome for this next idea for fancy compliments.

*Inspired by this morning’s jogger... and her Lab.

4- Balls and Boobs Are Uneven

If we’re at it, then let us talk about other sets in the human body.

Around the time I reached puberty, I noticed that one of my testicles
sometimes hangs lower than the other. I told my dad and he said that
it’s not something good. Though I remember he wasn’t too alarmed, which made me not give it much attention.

As I grew up my cojones grew with me, and the left ones would still hang lower than the right one. Not all the time, but most of it ― except when they shrink when cold or excited.

More than 25 years later I decided to Google my ‘abnormality’. And BAM.

“One testicle is often slightly larger than the other. This is usually
normal and nothing to worry about. However, if you notice that one
testicle has enlarged you should ask your doctor to check it. Usually,
the right testicle is larger than the left. Also, one testicle (usually
the left) often hangs lower than the other.”

So apparently I’m not the freak I always thought I was.

Interestingly, 65 percent of women have the left breast larger than the
right, which is the same percentage of men having a left testis hanging
lower than the right.

Richard ‘Dick’ Norris Williams II (January 29, 1891 – June 2, 1968), generally known as R. Norris Williams, was an American tennis player as well as an RMS Titanic survivor.

He had won the Swiss Championship in 1911 before entering Harvard a year later. He was then on board of the Titanic with his father when disaster struck. Even though he
had to spend hours in the freezing water, helping people, he managed to climb on top of one the life boats. However, the doctor on
board of the RMS Carpathia, which rescued most of the survivors, wanted
to amputate his legs.

Williams, who was 21 at the time, refused to go with the doctor’s decision and voted against
the amputation. He managed to get up and take walks every couple of
hours on the board of Carpathia, which has healed him. He fully recovered from his severe
injuries the same year and went on to enter the US Tennis Championship and actually won it! He
become the intercollegiate tennis champion in singles (1913, 1915) and doubles (1914, 1915).

The young man further won many
more championships and titles. He also served in World War I and
received several honors. After the war was over, he returned back
to tennis.

About This Blog

Hey there, my name is Omar Cherif and I'm a trilingual author, poet, philosopher and photographer with some wicked zest for life. After earning degrees in journalism, psychology, and philosophy, I worked in the corporate world for ten years before taking art in general and writing in particular as vocations. So starting my own blog and Facebook page couldn’t be such a bad idea.
The content may vary between conscious living, art, psychology, philosophy, history, music, nature, adventures, or just some fun raving, ranting and rambling of a semi-controlled coucou-minded non compos mentis. Yep, that’s how I see myself most of the times; as well as Eclectic Sapiosexual Philomath Lexophile Hedonist Psychonaut Nefelibata BoBo.
As such, if you’re mesmerised by the Youniverse and what it has to offer, this IS your cup o’ tea.
I often wonder why do men have nipples, and that in case you're cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right. I’m also still wondering what was the ‘that’ which Meat Loaf wouldn’t do in 1993. Lots of genius questions to ponder. Let’s do this...